Don Cornelius net worth

Net Worth: $15 million

About Don Cornelius

It has been estimated that Don Cornelius net worth reaches 15 million dollars. Born in 1936, Don Cornelius is known to the public as a TV personality and television producer which are the main sources of Don Cornelius net worth. Don Cornelius whose real birth name is Donald Cortez Cornelius passed away in February of 2012. He was mostly known as a creator of the TV show called “Soul Train” which was a franchise related to music and dance. He was the host of the show between the years 1971-1993. In 2008 Don Cornelius sold “Soul Train” to MadVision Entertainment.

Don Cornelius was born in the Southern region of Chicago but grew up in Bronzeville. After he graduated from high school, Don Cornelius became a member in the United States Marine Corps and was sent to serve in Korea for 18 months.

After his service there, he worked quite a lot of jobs such as working in an insurance company, selling automobiles and tires and working in a Chicago Police Department. He quit his job because he enrolled to study broadcasting in 1966. One of the most shocking facts is that at that time he had two sons and only 400 dollars in his bank account, thus his decision to quit his job seemed quite strange to people who knew him.

In the same year Don Cornelius got a job in a WVON radio station where he was selected to be a disc jockey, news host and reporter. One year later he was invited to work at WCIU-TV which was a television network established in Chicago. There, he got a job position of a news host of the TV show called “A Black’s View on the News” which was a news show. It added first bigger sums of money to the overall amount of Don Cornelius net worth.

In 1970, his show called “Soul Train” was started and it became a daily show which added huge sums of money to Don Cornelius net worth. In 1971, the show was relocated to Los Angeles. He started the show because in 1960 Don Cornelius realized that there were not so many shows about music and musicians, thus he introduced his show where a lot of soul music singers appeared. In addition, he invited a lot of African-American musicians to perform on his show and in that way they were introduced to a larger American audience. Thus, the show “Soul Train” helped a lot of African-American musicians to get known.